1833 Expulsion of the Mormons from Jackson County

The 1833 Expulsion of the Mormons from Jackson County was a forced displacement that turned a growing religious settlement into an armed conflict. Local resistance escalated from public denunciation to attacks on homes and community institutions, and more than a thousand people were driven across the Missouri River into northern territory. The expulsion began in 1833, but persecution continued until the Saints departed Missouri in 1839.

Settlement and Political Tension

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began arriving in Independence in 1831. At first, local residents regarded the small advance party as a minor religious group. More settlers followed: they bought land, established a settlement and a ferry crossing on Blue River, opened a general store in Independence, and founded the town’s first newspaper. Some also spoke against slavery, adding to the unease their growing community provoked.

The dispute sharpened as the Saints’ population increased and their religious claims became tied to control of place. Joseph Smith proclaimed Jackson County holy land and directed that Independence become their City of Zion. By summer 1833, more than a thousand Saints lived in the county—roughly a third of its population—and their numbers appeared capable of influencing the fall elections. At a meeting at the courthouse, local opponents made angry speeches and issued a proclamation that the Mormons were no longer welcome. The political stakes and the religious dispute had become inseparable: the prospect of electoral influence intensified hostility toward a community already viewed as a threat.

Attacks and Expulsion

Violence followed the public campaign. A mob destroyed the Mormon printing press, and a bishop was assaulted. On Halloween night, armed riders attacked the settlement on Blue River and drove women and children from their homes. Crops and barns were burned, and men were beaten. A separate clash left three people dead. Jackson County, the account observes, had entered a state of severe turmoil.

On the night of November 12, a spectacular meteor shower appeared over the frontier. Many residents interpreted it as a sign that the Mormons should be driven out. In the aftermath, more than a thousand people were forced from their homes and across the Missouri River into less settled territory to the north. Their removal did not end the persecution; the displaced Saints faced further attacks there, but now fought back. The event thus extended beyond a single night or one boundary crossing: expulsion displaced the community without resolving the conflict.

Aftermath and Significance

Lilburn W. Boggs, Missouri’s governor and an Independence storekeeper, called out the militia and declared that the Mormons had to leave the state. The account presents the ensuing struggle as a religious war and Missouri’s first civil war. The Saints did not leave Missouri until 1839, when they departed for Illinois, years after the initial expulsion from Jackson County.

The episode exposes the gap between the region’s promise as fertile, desirable land and its political reality. The settlement’s growth, religious claims, opposition to slavery among some members, and apparent electoral strength all fed local resistance; public exclusion then gave way to organized force. The meteor shower’s interpretation as a sign added a portentous meaning to the violence, but the expulsion itself was carried out through human decisions: attacks on a settlement, forced removal, and a state-backed demand to leave.